The International Football Association board has introduced a number of rule changes in football which will come into effect in this summer’s European Championships in France.
Players will no longer have to push the ball forward at kickoff, but will be allowed to back pass as well. An injured player as a result of a carded tackle will also be allowed to receive treatment on the pitch.
Referees have been given added power which will enable them to take disciplinary action on players right from warm up.
Other changes in rules coming into effect will be a slight modification of the offside rule, where the free kick resulting from an offside will be taken from the position the offence takes place rather than from where he has been flagged. Players will also be allowed to return immediately to the pitch after an equipment change.
Changes in laws of the game have often come under scrutiny for its efficiency. Some changes, like the offside rule, have been incredibly revolutionary and stand firm to date. Others, like the 10-yard advancement rule or the kick-ins, have been scraped off almost as soon as it was introduced.
Over the years, the Euros, being a major football tournament, also faced its fair share of rule changes, some for the good and others not so much. Here is a look on some of the rule changes which Euros have encountered in the past.
1) Yellow Cards wiped clean after quarter finals
There had been so many instances where players had missed Cup Finals because of suspension. Either the player was sent off in the semis, or had accumulated a second yellow which would see them miss the chance of playing for the trophy.
In the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Michael Ballack had picked up a second booking which would see him ineligible for the final against Brazil. He was the matchwinner in the semis against South Korea, scoring the only goal, but would go on to miss the all important final against Brazil which Germany would eventually lose.
Other notable instances were of Manchester United captain Roy Keane and midfielder Paul Scholes missing theChampions League Final due to suspension. Xavi Alonso of Real Madrid also suffered a similar fate in 2014.
In an effort to allow maximum players to be eligible for the Final, Yellow cards were wiped clean after the quarter final stage for the first time in Euro 2012. This meant that a player could be suspended for the final only if he got sent off in the semis.
A booking would enable the player to start in the final. This move, first introduced in Euro 2012, has seen it being implemented in the Champions League and the FIFA World Cup recently.
2) Golden Goal rule
The Euros have been a sort of testing ground for the infamous Golden Goal introduced by FIFA.
The Golden Goal was introduced in 1993 as a means to promote attacking play after negative football reached its nadir in 1992. The Golden Goal would enable a team to automatically win the fixture immediately after scoring in extra time. Euro 1996 was the first major tournament to feature the Golden Goal.
In 2000, a David Trezeguet Golden Goal won the Euros for France as they became the first holders of both the World Cup and Euros simultaneously since West Germany in 1974. Seeing that it promoted defensive play rather than the intended attacking for which it was introduced, it was scraped off after the 2002 World Cup.
3) Silver Goal Rule
After the 2002 World Cup, the Golden Goal rule was scrapped as it was seen that teams had become more cautious so that they wouldn’t concede a goal instead of going and scoring the winner.
The new Silver Goal Rule was introduced as a result. In this new format, If a team led in the first 15 minutes of extra time, they would go on to win the fixture, without any need for the second half to be played.
The Silver Goal, introduced for the first time in Euro 2004 in Portugal, saw Greece winning the semifinal tie against the Czech Republic after a Traianos Dellas goal in the dying moments of the first half of extra-time.
Soon after the 2004 Euros, FIFA announced that they will be doing away with the Silver goal. Two 15 minute halves of extra time was introduced which needed to be played completely, the leader at the end going on to win the match. If it was still undecided, a penalty shootout would follow to decide the winner.
4) Back-pass Rule
After EURO 1992, FIFA introduced the backpass rule to goalkeepers, where they were disallowed to handle the ball. Previously goalkeepers could pick up the ball with their hands when a fellow player passed it back to him. This led to an increase in negative play and more importantly, time-wasting.
This resulted in the introduction of the backpass rule which did not allow goalkeepers to handle a backpass anymore. Only a headed or chested ball could be handled, failing which an indirect free kick would be awarded to the opposing team from where the ball had been handled.
This rule has seen teams conceding silly goals as goalkeepers try their best to keep away a backpass from a on-coming opponent striker.
5) Six Second Rule
A rule change in 2000, just before the Euros, saw the six-second rule being introduced which would allow goalkeepers to hold on to the ball for a maximum of six seconds before releasing it. It was an initiative to stop time-wasting in football.
There were several instances of goalkeepers holding the ball for too long, as one is described by Jonathan Wilson as he writes in The Outsider:
"A general rethink about the laws of the game had been promoted by the negativity of the 1990 World Cup and, in particular, one passage of play in the group match between the Republic of Ireland and Egypt in which the Irish keeper Packie Bonner held the ball for almost six minutes without releasing it."
The positive rule change came as a boon for football, with that technique of time wasting lessened in the modern game. However, in a Europa League clash against Bordeaux this season, Liverpool goalkeeper held the ball for 22 seconds for which he conceded a goal as a result of the indirect free kick awarded to Bordeaux.
Modification of rules for the betterment of the game has always been welcomed in football. The Goal Line Technology used during the FIFA World Cup in 2014 was a success and so were numerous other rules in the past, notably the revolutionary offside rule. Rule changes have always been part and parcel of the game and will continue to be.
